By Sam Mamudi

The struggling department store chain this week will begin adding some of the hundreds of sales it ditched last year in hopes of luring back shoppers who were turned off when the discounts disappeared.

Penney also plans to add new price tags or signs for more than half of its merchandise to show customers how much they’re saving by shopping at the mid-priced chain — a strategy used by a few other retailers such as home decor chain Crate and Barrel and the company that owns TJ Maxx, HomeGoods and Marshalls. For store branded items such as Arizona, Penney will show comparison prices from competitors.

This, of course, is an about-face from CEO Ron Johnson’s plan for Penney unveiled last year, part of which was to scrap sales and everyday low prices. As d’Innocenzio writes:

But so far the experiment has served as a cautionary tale of how difficult it is to change shopper’ habits: Penney next month is expected to report its fourth consecutive quarter of big sales drops and profit losses. After losing more than half of its value, Penney stock is trading at around $18. And the company’s credit ratings are in junk status.

Johnson told the AP that the new approach is an “evolution” not a “deviation” from his strategy. Which is fine as far as nit-picking goes but, given the criticism he’s received, the news suggests that Penney’s going back, at least slightly, to what it’s customers really want.

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JANUARY 28, 2013 11:43 P.M.

JRB wrote:

Forget you Penny's, Ron's plan is to force companies to put a jacked up MSRP price to show you what a great deal it is.. Eveything this man does is an insult to the buyer, fire this guy while you still have some money in the bank JCP.. Gee, Ron in his unbutton shirt, sweater, dyed hair has fired a truck load of people. Come on, $12 Million to his ole buddy from Target to jump ship, fired him after 8 months, well he got rid of most of the people that surround his position to refill them with his cronies, always a bad sign, it is a sign of "the vision" just being an old rehash, these types just relive 3 years of experiences, 10 times for a 30 year career.they don't listen, they try to understand their new environment. They will give you lip service as if they are developing some get vision based on input, but they are just spinning back to 3 years. There is nothing special about this guy only that he fell in love with himself at an earlier age. jCP has to sell a lot of over priced Chinese shoes to pay this guy, how many pairs for that $12 million blown on his old buddy. Here is a fact, with reduced, and Ron has reduced sale space drastically, the main way to make up for that lost of profit is to have a Fair and Square price that is totally higher than the old selling point, coupled with cheaper made products. Explains the higher profit per square footage, factoring in the lost of fototage doesn't it. Yeah,coupons, sales is hard work for any store, here lies the rub, problem with Ron is he doesn't 't seem to like work, he seems to think the smoke and mirrors approach used by Apple works for retail, with a fake high MSRP, the problem Apple doesn't discount so any store front works for Apple. There is nothing special about an Apple store, no one believes there is a genius at the Genuis Bar, most likely a minimum wage employee. Apple didn't refine retailing, you see any one else that is successful doing so? Apple sells its own products, it set a price, it never discounted, with a product line like that you can do anything you want. Not so in real retailing as Ronnie, or the stock holders are finding out. Nothing would get me back into a JCP, my guess if you want to try on others, get rid of Ron, get rid of that tacky Fair and Square, can't remember the first, wall graffiti plastered on there walls, bring back value, get rid of that tacky fad clothing. There is a differents between fad and style.

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